Civil Liberties
lawyers find themselves defending racist white supremacists, because they
believe that the right to free speech is more important than moral judgment of
what their clients say. Reviewers are sometimes forced to give good reviews to
books that they do not enjoy, because they feel that their function is to
report on the quality of the writing, in despite reservations on the subject
matter.

I have
suggested in the introduction to the “Reviews” section of my website that
sometimes the critic’s function is to read books so that you won’t have to.
This point applies in the case of “Guystuff,” but in a strange way, because
these stories are very well written and a joy to read. Linton Robinson is an
author who knows the way into the depths of man’s soul. It’s just that a goodly
number of readers (a certain 50% I can think of) might not really want to look
there. Especially the kind of man Robinson finds fascinating.

This
book is a collection of short stories (and some not-really-stories), most of
which have already been published in such magazines as Playboy, Hustler, and
Biker. Which gives you some kind of idea of the intended audience. If you are
not that kind of person, perhaps a light dip into this book will suffice.

A
further caveat; as with many collections of shorter fiction, please do yourself
a favour and don’t try to absorb large amounts of this book at one sitting.
They are meant to be taken in small doses, like extra-chocolate cheesecake. A
great experience at first, but after prolonged exposure you begin to feel sick.

XXX
Restricted

This is
a type of pornography that is far worse for society than pictures of naked
bodies. When you consider how virulent misogynist ideology might affect the
kind of impressionable, testosterone-riddled juvenile minds that read Hustler,
it is scary as hell. Not that certain people don’t feel that way about the
opposite sex. No one can challenge the truth of this writing. It’s just
possible that publishing those ideas might validate them in certain minds. OMG.

One
creative feature of some of these stories is that they give us a different
point of view. Especially “Interview With the Gigolo,” which completely upends
the traditional attitude of the prostitute towards the customer . This opposite
angle gives us a new perspective: a twisted world where men are beautiful and
desirable and women fight and claw each other for a piece of them. Quite
understandably, the men have no respect for their clients at all. If any
writing could make a male reader reconsider the dangers of prostitution, this
story should.

Do I
Believe That?

The
stream-of-consciousness technique Robinson uses to great effect brings us
inside the heads of some people we are very uncomfortable meeting. We are
invited to understand the reasons and emotions behind promiscuous sex,
brutality, rape, and even murder. It is very uncomfortable for us when we find
that, to some extent, we do understand.

One
“story” (which isn’t) that stands out is “Your Mama, a Brief Oral History,”
which is an impossible-to-categorize paean to the total degradation of that
most nurturing of human relationships, motherhood. Meant to be the class act of
the volume, it is full of classical references, witty in-jokes, and
psychological truths and myths.

To a
more twisted example; in "Playing Hurt" we are invited to understand
the background that would develop a rapist who would offer his victim a
baseball bat with which to protect herself before he proceeded with the
assault. It seems he has “fair play” and “foreplay” rather mixed up. The
problem is that before we find out why he’s in jail, we actually feel sorry for
this guy and admire how he has risen above his beginnings.

If
there is any story I would recommend that Linton pull from the book, it’s “In
the Bag.” An unmitigated juvenile wet dream with no artistic or social
redeeming value.

Recommended
for enquiring adult minds with strong stomachs. Can’t punish quality writing
because of the subject matter. A lot of people probably felt this way about
Lady Chatterly, although I give Lawrence a slight edge on writing style. 4
stars out of 5.